Notes From The Phillies’ 2-0 Loss To Cincinnati

The Philadelphia Phillies lost the second of their three-game series with the Reds, falling 2-0 in Cincinnati. Their record drops to 1-1.

On The Mound

• The Phils wasted a solid outing from Jerad Eickhoff, who gave up just two runs over 6.2 innings of work. Eickhoff allowed only five hits and struck out six while walking one.
• Eickhoff anchored the team with six scoreless frames to start the game before cracking the in seventh inning, allowing a leadoff homer to Joey Votto.
• Joely Rodriguez came on in relief of Eickhoff to get the final out of the seventh.
• Pat Neshek made his season debut, tossing a scoreless eighth, striking out two.

At The Plate

• The bats were shutout, generating just four hits on the night.
• The offense began the night with more patient at-bats, forcing Reds’ starter Brandon Finnegan to throw more than 20 pitches in the first inning, but completely abandoned their disciplined approach in the following eight innings, only forcing him to throw more than 10 pitches in an inning twice the rest of the night.
• Another brutal night at the plate for Tommy Joseph, who went 0-4 with three strikeouts.
• Joseph came up with two men on in the first inning, got ahead 1-0, and then swung at a terrible pitch out of the strikezone, resulting in a pop-up to end the early threat.
• Joseph is 0-8 with five strikeouts in the first two games.
• Aaron Alther started in right field, going 1-3 with a single in the eighth.
• Cameron Rupp went 1-3, but his single came on a flukey infield hit.
• Howie Kendrick worked the team’s only walk in the first inning.

Final Thoughts

Following Opening Day’s patient offensive performance, to see the offense turn away from that approach and resort to hacking at so many first pitches was rather disheartening. Finnegan retired 19 in a row to finish his evening, as the lifeless bats turned in an unacceptable performance.

Jerad Eickhoff gave the Phillies a great chance to start the season 2-0, but Pete Mackanin’s lineup just wasn’t interested in giving him any run support.